Disclaimer: Unfortunately I do not own Twilight, Stephenie Meyer does.

A/N: I've had this idea for a story in my head for awhile and just now decided to publish it on here. I'm kinda new to fanfiction, so I hope I'm doing this all right. I've read a few stories on here and seen that the authors offer up teasers for reviews, so that's what I will be doing. Also the people who I find to look like the characters are on my profile as well as important outfits for certain chapters. Well enough of me talking, I'll just let you guys get to reading and I really hope to hear what you think, all constructive criticism is welcome but please be polite. I hope you all like the prologue.

September 2, 2006 Saturday

Today is a depressing day, knowing that I have only one day left of summer after today and then I would be starting my senior year of high school. Many people would think that I would be excited about this, but then again they don't have to wake up early on Monday and actually finish the year. Truthfully, I didn't mind school that much, I had awesome friends, got relatively good grades, but there was just something about this school year that made me nervous. I don't know if it was cause I will be leaving everything that I know behind to go to college, or if I was somehow going crazy. I prayed that it wasn't the latter.

So here I am, laying in my bed, looking up at my ceiling, thinking about my future when my annoying brother, bursts into my room, practically knocking down my door in the process.

"Bells, get up! You got to get ready." He jumped and landed on my bed, shaking everything in my room.

"It's early, I do not get up when it is this early." I looked at the clock to make sure that it was still early.

"Shit! Why didn't anyone wake me up!"

"Told you you had to get up. Now hurry up and be downstairs in 10."

"Alright, alright. Now get out of my room." He left, laughing hysterically at me. Did I miss the joke?

I quickly made it out of my room to the jack and jill bathroom between Emmett's room and mine. Standing in front of the mirror, I looked at myself. I was so plain; brown hair, brown eyes, pale skin. Trying to forget about it, I washed my face and brushed my teeth and went back into my room. I went digging around in my dresser for my bathing suit, put it on and then put a tank top and shorts on. I looked at myself in my mirror once before I ran out of my room and down the stairs tripping on the last step and falling right into my dad.

"Hey kiddo, you're running a little late. Better hurry up and get out to the car before Emmett leaves without you." He gave me a smile.

"Yeah, I know. See you later dad. Bye Mom!" Hopefully she could hear me from where she was in the kitchen. She always spent her time in the kitchen, whether it was baking or cleaning.

I ran outside and paused at what was in front of me.

"Why are we taking so many cars?" Emmett and Rosalie, his girlfriend, were in his jeep. Rosalie's younger brother, Jasper, was in my friend, Alice's, car, with her in the passenger's seat. And then there was my best friend, Edward, who was in his most prized possession. A silver Volvo.

"Just in case some of us want to leave early." Emmett responded, while wiggling his eyebrows suggestively at Rosalie.

"Ok, ewww. Whatever." I quickly walked over to Edwards's car and got in.

"Why are you always late?"

"Just shut up and drive, I'm not in a good mood."

"Oh come on, we're going to the beach, and for once it's a beautiful day! You should be happy."

"Monday we have to go to school. Emmett's leaving tomorrow for college. And do you realize that this time next year, we're all heading our separate ways. It's depressing." I was getting upset already and just stared out the window.

"Hey, look at me." I refused, whenever Edward got like this, he would always make me feel better and I wasn't in the mood to be cheered up.

"Isabella Marie Swan." Don't do it Bella, don't give in.

"What?" I was weak.

"Listen to me, wherever you go I go. Just remember that. You're stuck with me whether you like it or not, so don't talk like that. And plus, we still have a year and today we are going to have fun. Got it?"

"Fine. You know what, you're annoying."

"I know, but you love me anyways."

"Not when you're annoying like this."

"Admit it, you love me. Say it."

"No." I was still staring out the window but this time trying very hard not to laugh.

"If you don't then I'm gonna throw you in the ocean." I whipped my head towards him. I'm sure I had a look of horror on my face.

"You wouldn't."

"Ohhh, I would." A smirk played on his lips.

"Fine, I love you." I mumbled.

"I'm sorry, I didn't hear you. Could you speak up?" He put his hand up to his ear.

"I said fine, I love you." I shouted.

"Awwww, you love me? How sweet."

"You're such an ass."

"Yes, but an ass that you happen to love." He gave me his signature crooked smile.

We made it to the beach at around 12 and unloaded all of our stuff while trying to find the perfect spot on the warm sand.

"Hey! What about over here?" Alice shouted to us from a nice secluded place.

"Looks good short stuff." My brother playfully ruffled her hair as she tried to get his large arm off.

"I am not that short!"

"Babe, you're not even five feet. That qualifies as short." Jasper gave her a quick peck on the cheek while picking her up and pretending to throw her in the ocean.

"Jazz, you better not hurt my baby sister." Edward, always the protective older brother. I've never seen a brother so close to his sister, besides me and Emmett, and be complete opposites. Edward was tall and had bronze hair, while Alice had dark brown hair, almost black, and was extremely short. However they both had bright emerald green eyes.

Alice looked completely annoyed while she was dangling over Jaspers shoulder. She then started screaming when a wave came and got her wet with her clothes still on.

"Are you actually gonna go in the water at all or are you just gonna sit here and mope around and read your book?" Edward hated it when I didn't go in the water. "That's what beaches are for.", he continually says to me.

"How did you know that I brought a book with me?" He started going through my bag and pulled out a book.

"Because I just know you all too well and that's scary."

"And what's wrong with just sitting on the sand and enjoying myself?" Here it comes.

"Because people come to beaches to go in the water."

"Fine, but only for a little bit."

"Haha, I broke you down! I thought it was gonna take a lot longer to get you to go in."

"Yeah, well I guess today is your lucky day." I started taking my shorts and tank top off, revealing a blue and black swimsuit. Edward then grabbed my hand and started dragging me towards the ocean.

"What if it's cold!" I yelled to him.

"You'll get used to it now come on!" I already saw Alice on top of Jasper's shoulders and Rosalie on top of Emmett's, they were trying to knock each other off.

Edward and I made it to the water and it was absolutely freezing and soon as I got in to my hips a huge wave came and splashed right into me making me gasp but Edward just kept pulling me further in.

"Come on, get on." He lowered himself down and wanted me to get on his shoulders.

"No freaking way am I doing that."

"Seriously are you trying to not have a good day today on purpose or something?"

"No I just don't want to fall and get hurt."

"Bella, just come on."

"Yeah, Bellsy join in on the fun." Of course my brother, who I may add is 23, would still find stuff like this fun.

"Oh alright." I gave in. Edward was right, just because I was depressed about next year didn't mean that I had to ruin the whole year adding up to it. It was just foolish on my part.

I climbed onto Edward's shoulders and started wrestling with Alice. About five minutes into it we were laughing hysterically and none of us could knock over the other because we were so giddy. Then I had to wrestle Rosalie, she was being a little more serious about it and actually knocked me off and that's when my bad day, turned good, turned horrible.

She pushed me down and as soon as I hit the water, I gasped, sucking in a mouthful of water as a wave crashed over me. I couldn't get up and I couldn't feel which direction was up and I started to panic. My arms were flailing and I tried kicking to get myself centered and in the right direction but nothing was working and eventually I just gave up and it seemed as if I was floating on clouds and everything felt good. All my worries went away and I was basking in it. Is this what it felt like to die? Who knew it was so...peaceful? I know I sure didn't. But all too soon, I felt the happiness and everything carefree go away. I was being dragged to the surface by someone and that's when I started to panic again, realizing that I had to get to the surface.

I broke through the surface coughing horrendously, looking around to see where I was and who saved me. As I turned I found myself in deeper water somehow and then found myself looking into green eyes. Edward.

"Edward?"

"What the hell happened?" He asked, while trying to pull me along while swimming.

"I don't know, I just couldn't get up." I started to shake, realization of what just happened flooded me.

"You're ok, you're ok. We're almost there." We finally made it back to the sand and I was clinging onto Edward like he was my lifeline, and technically he just had been. That's when I saw Emmett running over to us, going fully into "Big Brother" mode. He grabbed my face in his huge hands.

"Are you ok?"

"Yeah, I'm fine. My chest hurts a little bit though." I was still shaking.

"Here." Edward draped a towel over me and started to dry me off.

"Do you want to go home?" He whispered into my ear. I just nodded while he told everyone that we were going to take off. Of course Emmett wanted to take me but Edward insisted and I agreed.

We got in the car and he cranked the heat up, seeing as I just couldn't shake this constant chill that I had and the fact that it looked like it was going to rain. I knew the beautiful day wouldn't last long.

"You're house or mine?" I really didn't want to answer any questions from my parents yet.

"Yours." We were quiet for a while and then he finally spoke up.

"You scared the shit out of me today." I felt guilty, I hated it when people were sad or angry because of me.

"I'm sorry." I looked down at my hands.

"Don't be sorry, I was just terrified that I wouldn't get to you in time. After that wave came, it just kind of knocked you out further. I don't even know how that's possible." I didn't say anything. I couldn't and I think he caught on because he didn't say anything else.

A half hour later we pulled onto our street, and he parked in his driveway. We walked up the steps and he let us in. Thank God his parents weren't home. Having them question me was just as bad as my own parents.

I lead the way up to his bedroom with him right behind me.

"You wanna take a shower?" I nodded.

"Ok I'll leave some clothes out for you." I went into his bathroom and then I heard him leave.

I stayed in there for awhile, just thinking about the events of today. If Edward hadn't saved me, would I have just let myself die because I thought it was peaceful? The answer was simple. Yes, I would. I didn't think of myself as suicidal or anything, I actually loved life. But at that moment, the feeling was unlike anything I had ever felt before. I felt so light and at peace. It was like I didn't even exist but yet I was still there somehow. It was all surreal.

I finally stepped out of the shower, dried myself off, wrapped the towel around me and stepped out into his room. On his bed I found and oversized shirt that would be too small for him and some of his old sweatpants. I was going through my bag trying to find my panties and then dropped my towel when I found them and proceeded to put them on. I just finished pulling them up when Edward walked in. Looking at me with no top on he just froze and I squealed and quickly brought my arms up to cover my breasts.

"Holy shit! I thought you were still in the shower! I'm so sorry!" He quickly turned around and left his room. I just stood there for a minute in shock. In my mind I kept repeating, holy shit, holy shit, holy shit.

I finally proceeded with getting dressed and went downstairs to the living room. I could see Edward leaning forward with his head in his hands muttering something. When he heard me coming towards him he lifted his head and looked at me, his eyes wide.

"Bella, I'm really sorry. I just wanted to go grab something and figured you were still in the shower. I should have knocked; it was so stupid of me not to." A look of terror washed over his face as his eyes left mine and looked down. I had to laugh. And it wasn't just a chuckle; it was a full out hysterical laugh.

"You would find this hilarious." He glared at me.

"Well…you should have…seen…your face." I finally got out while laughing.

"Seriously, how do you not feel traumatized or violated?"

"Honestly, I would have been if it was anyone but you. You're my best friend; you've seen me at my worst and at my best. It was just bound to happen when you see me at my barest." At that last sentence I started laughing again. At first, I was a little embarrassed knowing that Edward had seen me like that cause I had always felt self conscious about my body. But then I felt something, and I knew that I didn't care because it was in fact Edward and I knew that he "loved" me no matter what. But there was also another feeling that I couldn't quite place, almost like desire. It was strange. I couldn't feel those feelings towards Edward; I had known him my entire life. He was like a brother to me.

"Wow Bells, that was deep."

"Shut up." I pushed him.

"So you wanna watch a movie or something?" He asked me.

"Why not."

The next day, my family was standing outside with Emmett and helping him load his car with his stuff. Unfortunately he was leaving for college.

I walked up to him and clung on to him.

"Promise me you'll call every week." He chuckled.

"Bells, I'll try." He then tried to remove my arms from around his neck but I didn't budge.

"Promise."

"Fine, Bella. I promise that I will call every week and tell you how awesome college life is and tell you what you're missing. Does that sound good?" I smiled and let go.

"Perfect."

My dad finished loading the last box and Emmett hopped in the drivers side of his jeep. And then he was gone.

I spent hours in my room just sulking. Even when Edward called I just ignored him. I knew I was being immature about this but my big brother just left and I deserve to be a little sad about it.

It was probably around seven at night when my mom knocked on my door.

"Come in."

"Sweetie, me and your dad are going to go out for a little while. Probably just to dinner and a movie. We'll be back, hopefully, around midnight. Will you be ok by yourself?" I could see the concern in her eyes.

"Yeah, I'll be fine mom. You guys go have fun." I smiled, letting her know that I was serious.

"Ok then. Don't wait up. Remember we love you…"

"…to the moon and back. Yeah, yeah, I know." She smiled and shut my door. I then heard her descending footsteps on the stairs and waited for the front door to shut.

Within in an hour I was asleep, and I never knew that the next time I awoke, my life would be forever changed.

A/N: Thanks for reading guys. I hope you liked the Prologue. I know it was a little long especially since it was just a prologue but I like it so…yea. Also, I'm going to try to update every Saturday unless I tell you guys otherwise. And remember, if you review you get a teaser for the next chapter, maybe not right away, but obviously before the next Saturday. Also go visit my profile for pictures of their beach attires.

On a sadder note, today is the ninth anniversary of a horrible day, the Twin Towers being attacked. I was only in fifth grade when it happened but I will never forget coming home and seeing what was on the television. It was a horrible sight and I hope nothing like that ever happens again.

Chapter Question: Where were you/what were you doing when the Twin Towers got hit?